Sonic and the Black Knight
|JP/AUS|March 12, 2009 |EU|March 13, 2009}} }} is a video game developed by Sonic Team, Neversoft, Raven Software and Infinity Ward and published by Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Activision as part of the ''Sonic The Hedgehog series. The game was released on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii as the second entry in the Sonic Storybook series, following Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007). Set in the world of King Arthur parodying the film The Princess Bride, the game combines Sonic Sr's trademark speed with a new sword fighting system, utilizing of the Wii Remote / Console Controller's motion-sensing functionality. The series villain Doctor Eggman is absent, making this one of the few Sonic games that he does not appear in. Sonic and the Black Knight received mixed reviews, with praise for its graphics, presentation and abundance of bonus content, but criticism of the game's controls, swordplay mechanics and multiplayer aspect. Sonic and the Black Knight was de-listed from retailers in 2010, following Sega's decision to remove all Sonic series titles with sub-average Metacritic scores in order to increase the value of the brand. Gameplay Gameplay differs from traditional games in the Sonic series by mixing in the new element of swordplay and marksmen with the traditional Sonic platforming and speed. Swordplay is implemented through the Wii Remote / Console Controller. Gameplay is more similar to Sonic Unleashed than Sonic and the Secret Rings; Sonic's movement is controlled with the analog stick as he is on a set course, and gameplay is mainly 3D. The stages feature townspeople that the player can harm and some that Sonic Sr can interact with; these actions and the player's deeds will be judged at the end of each stage, updating his "knight ranking" accordingly. By interacting with these characters the player may do a quick-time button input. Doing so correctly will take away twenty of Sonic Sr's rings and give them to the townsperson, and in return, he receives a gift at the end of the stage. In some stages, it is required to give a specific amount of rings to townspeople before reaching the goal. In stages where this is not required the townsperson will reward Sonic Sr with an item. There are 242 items in the game, some of which can be gained by opening treasure chests in the stages. Any items collected during a stage must be identified at the end of the stage by using Sonic Sr's "ID points". Rarer items cost more ID points than others. An online mode allows treasures to be traded between registered friends. The game changes the traditional level items, such as springs and speed pads, into "fairies." These fairies come in varying colors; Yellow elements will be used as a group of one to twenty rings, Blue fairies will be used as speed boosts and springs, and Red will be used to fill the "Soul gauge." This gauge is filled by defeating enemies and collecting Red Fairies, and is used to unleash a powerful lock-on attack, Soul Surge. On only the first few stages, the "pearls" from the previous game, Sonic and the Secret Rings, appear as apples. The skill system from Sonic and the Secret Rings also returns, but has been revised to adjust any problems that were present in that game: the skill system is also designed so as not to interfere with the game's tempo. Each playable character has three styles to choose from. At first, only the balanced "Knight" style is available, but later, "Cavalier" and "Paladin" styles are unlocked. They deal with the aspects of speed and power, respectively. As levels are completed, the player gains a number of "Followers" that is used as Experience and as the number of followers goes up, the number of skills the player has in a certain style are increased. The "styles" of characters beside Sonic Sr are not increased; Rather, their swords' and Firearms' abilities and skills are enhanced. Once the "Knight's Quest" part of the story is reached, Sir Gawain (Knuckles the Echidna), Sir Lancelot (Shadow the Hedgehog), and Sir Percival (Blaze the Cat) will be playable from that point on. Each has their own characteristics; for instance, Knuckles wields dual swords that double as boomerangs and has the ability to glide, Blaze can surround herself with fire and use more lunge attacks than Sonic Sr, and Shadow can use Chaos Powers. In story mode, they can use different swords than their own swords, unlike Sonic Sr, who can only wield Caliburn and any firearms. Up to four players can play in the game's multiplayer, choosing between one of 12 characters to partake in a number of different kinds of battles. Characters include Sonic Sr, King Uther Pendragon (Terra), Guinevere (Aqua), Lancelot (Shadow), Gawain (Knuckles), Percival (Blaze), Blacksmith (Tails) (voiced by Danielle Judovits), Lady of the Lake (Amy Rose), Galahad (Silver the Hedgehog) (voiced by Terence J. Rotolo), Lamorak (Jet the Hawk) (voiced by Crispin Freeman), regular Shadow, regular Knuckles, regular Blaze and King Arthur. Plot The game is an enactment of a book of Arthurian legend read to his girlfriend Amy Rose (voiced by Laura Bailey), his master Ignitus the Flame Guardian (voiced by Ken Hudson Campbell) and his partner Sparx the Dragonfly (voiced by Freddy Rodriguez)—who is initially dismissive of the story—by Sonic the Hedgehog Sr (voiced by Troy Baker), with occasional interruptions of the scenes in this frame story of King Arthur. A wizard named Merlina (voiced by Alicia Witt), granddaughter of Merlin (voiced by Christopher Lee), attempts to flee from a black knight and his forces. Cornered, she performs a spell calling forth a champion to save her, summoning Ignitus' apprentice, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and the former soldier of the U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance Sonic the Hedgehog Sr with the M4A1 carbine with M203 grenade launcher and Beretta M9 pistol. As they retreat, Merlina explains that the knight is actually King Arthur (voiced by Arnold Schwarzenegger), who has been corrupted by the immortality granted by Excalibur's scabbard, and that Sonic Sr must defeat him to restore peace to the kingdom. With Sonic Sr's speed and the firearms alone being insufficient to defeat the King, he takes up the talking sword Caliburn (voiced by Bruce Campbell). At Caliburn's suggestion, Sonic Sr meets up with the Lady of the Lake, Nimue (this world's version of Amy Rose) as well as Arthur's foster parents King Uther Pendragon (voiced by Jerry O'Connell) (this world's version of Terra) and Queen Guinevere (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) (this world's version of Aqua, who tests Sonic Sr to prove he is a worthy Knight trained by his foster parents. After completing her tasks, Nimue tells him, Uther Pendragon and Guinevere that he must collect the sacred swords wielded by Lancelot (voiced by David Vincent), Gawain (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams) and Percival (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) of the Round Table (this world's versions of Shadow, Knuckles and Blaze respectively) in order to dispel the immortality granted by Excalibur's scabbard. Defeating each of the Knights, Sonic Sr claims all three swords and with the aid of his father, they challenged the King once more, destroying him with the help of his father Uther Pendragon using the real Excalibur sword and Sonic Sr took his name and became the real King Arthur after the battle. Sonic Sr (as King Arthur) and Uther Pendragon takes the scabbard back to Merlina, who reveals that there was never any King Arthur but he replies that his son is the real King Arthur, and that he defeated an illusion created by her grandfather Merlin, with Merlina manipulating Sonic Sr in order to claim Excalibur's scabbard as her own. Merlin plans to use its power to make the kingdom changeless and eternal in hopes of averting the kingdom's fate from the legends. She summons the underworld directly into the kingdom, creating the Dark Hollow and forcing Sonic Sr and the Knights to flee. Nimue explains that the sacred swords are able to form a barrier to prevent the Dark Hollow's spread, so Sonic Sr and the Knights split up and journey to the kingdom's corners. However, the barrier proves to be too weak and the hollow continues to grow. Sonic Sr enters the Dark Hollow with Uther Pendragon and Guinevere on his side to confront Merlina, who has now become the Dark Queen, but she proves too powerful, badly injuring Sonic Sr and destroying Caliburn until Uther Pendragon overpowers the Dark Queen in order to avenge Sonic Sr's injury and the death of Caliburn by ending her reign of tyranny by the using the real Excalibur Sword and enlisting the help of the wizard Merlin tp destroy the Darkcaliburs. Seeing Sonic Sr's continued resolve for the care of Guinevere, the Knights give Sonic Sr the power of the sacred swords to restore Caliburn – now revealed to be the true Excalibur – and Sonic Sr transforms into an armored super form called Excalibur Sonic Sr. He defeats Merlina with Uther and Guinevere's help, destroying the Dark Hollow and ending her reign of tyranny. After the battle, Sonic Sr along with his parents Uther Pendragon and Guinevere tells Merlina that, while everything has an end, people should live their lives to the fullest until that day comes. With King Arthur revealed as an illusion, the Knights of the Round Table prepare to disband until Lancelot, but Caliburn reminds them that he is the one who chooses the true king, now revealed to be Sonic Sr (King Arthur). He thanks his foster parents for not letting it down and knighted them with Caliburn to serve under his command just before he order them to rebuild the damaged that she caused. In a post-credits cutscene, Amy asks Sonic Sr to go for the planed date in New York City's Times Square with his agents Terra and Aqua along with Ignitus and Sparx on their side to which Sonic Sr replies, "As you wish." The game ends in a similar manner to Sonic and the Secret Rings, with the title of the book King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table changing to Sonic and the Black Knight. Development and release Sonic and the Black Knight was first revealed at Nintendo's pre-Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2008 press conference. Developer Sonic Team, a subsidiary of publisher Sega, Neversoft Entertainment, Raven Software and Infinity Ward, decided to focus on combat and cinematic presentation for the game rather than the level design-oriented Sonic Unleashed. Music Face to Faith: Sonic and the Black Knight Vocal Trax is the game's official vocal songs soundtrack that was released on April 8, 2009 by Warner Sunset Records and Warner Bros. Records. It features five vocal tracks (which were performed by Stevie Wonder, Al Jarreau, Josh Groban, Pharrell Williams, Seal. Phil Collins, Christina Aguilerra, Miley Cyrus and Celine Dion) that were featured in the game, with "Seven Rings in Hand ~Fairytales in Trance~" by Linkin Park and "With Me ~Massive Power Mix~" by Pharrell Williams and Jennifer Love Hewitt with the string arrangements by Steve Jablonsky, Bobby Tahouri and Jennifer Hammond as brand new bonus tracks created especially for the album. CDJapan / Neowing Face to Faith description and tracklist Tales of Knighthood: Sonic and the Black Knight Original Soundtrax is the game's original soundtrack which includes the score composed by Steve Jablonsky with the additional music composed by Bobby Tahouri, Lorne Balfe, Richard Jacques and Howard Drossin. It was released in Worldwide by Warner Sunset Records and Warner Bros. Recordsn on April 8, 2009. Molten Mine's background music is Steve Jablonsky, Matthew Margeson and Bobby Tahouri's rearranged version of the "Action Theme" from Black Dawn, a completely unrelated PlayStation and Sega Saturn video game released in 1996. The music itself was originally made by Tommy Tallarico. The songs were featured from the 1998 film Quest for Camelot including "United We Stand" by Peabo Bryson and Avenged Sevenfold, "Looking Through Your Eyes" by LeAnn Rimes, "I Stand Alone" by Adam Lambert and "The Prayer" by Charlotte Church and Josh Groban. Reception | MC = 54/100 | 1UP = C+ | Allgame = | CVG = 5.6/10 | Edge = 3/10 | EuroG = 4/10 | GamePro = | GTM = 8/10 | GI = 5/10 | GSpot = 4.5/10 | GRadar = | GT = 5.7/10 | GameZone = 5.8/10 | IGN = 3.9/10 | NLife = 5/10 | NP = 8/10 | NWR = 6.5/10 | ONM = 78% | VG = 5/10 | rev1 = GameDaily | rev1Score = 7/10 }} Sonic and the Black Knight was met with mixed reviews from critics. It received a score of 55.19% on GameRankings and 54/100 on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The game entered the Japanese sales chart at 30th place, and the North American Wii charts at tenth. It was de-listed in 2010, following on from Sega's decision to remove all Sonic titles with mixed Metacritic scores from retail stores in order to increase the value of the brand after positive reviews for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I and Sonic Colors. IGN's Matt Casamassina praised the game's visuals and the overall presentation, but went on to state that the gameplay was "broken" and cited the controls as "unresponsive". GameDaily criticized the "repetitive combat, easy missions and limited controls keep it from greatness," but acknowledged its "attractive presentation, decent combat and bonus content." Chris Scullion from the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine praised the game's visuals and soundtrack, but criticized the swordplay mechanics and multiplayer element. GameSpot's Carolyn Petit noted that, while the sword is useful slashing through enemies, there is a noticeable delay from the time swinging the Wii Remote and the time Sonic actually swings. Notes References External links *Official website Category:2009 video games Category:3D platform games Category:Arthurian games Category:Fantasy video games Category:Sega video games Category:Sonic Team games Category:Sonic the Hedgehog video games Category:Video games composed by Tommy Tallarico Category:Video games developed in Japan Category:Video games featuring female antagonists Category:Video games featuring parallel universes Category:Video game sequels Category:Wii Wi-Fi games Category:PlayStation 2 games Category:PlayStation 3 games Category:Xbox 360 games Category:Activision games Category:Neversoft games Category:Raven Software games Category:Warner Bros. 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